I am not a woman but have known many over the years and most of them did the thing where you put your bra on backwards to reach the clasp and slide it backwards into position on their their back.
Front clasp bras would completely solve this problem but I never asked why they didn’t have them.
My wife says because “they fit weird.” And they’re less adjustable, apparently. Also they’re prone to self-release if you move your arms in a certain way.
But if you get the Jockey brand I get, the front closure is a very nice long zipper. There are pads in the bra but they remove [I guess you are not even supposed to hint at nipple existence?] and the microfiber it is made of is very breathable. I also like the racer back. THey do have other front zip but I really like the comfort of a sports bra.
And yes it isn’t all lacy and pretty, but I don’t do girly well and have little use for scratchy inexpensive lace made out of polyester thread.
According to every woman I’ve discussed it with, this. They seem to pop open at the most inconvenient times.
Some of them pop open very easily - I think it’s because the two sides are connected only by that single hook. ( I see looking on-line there are some more substantial in the front but I’ve never seen them in a store.) I think that they feel weird, also because only that hook is holding it together and they are definitely less adjustable - bras that close in back have at least two rows of hooks plus you can add a separate extender if you need more adjusting , but I didn’t see any front closures that allowed that sort of adjustment.
I love them! The ones I wear have 7 hooks in the front but maybe that’s because I wear a larger size. I don’t have any problems with them popping open. They’re one of the Playtex 18-hour styles.
I’m a woman and have never done the putting on the bra backwards thing. And I’ve never ever seen another woman put on her bra backwards, not my mom and sisters at home, or friends at sleepovers, or roommates in college and grad school, or women in the changing room at the gym and pool.
When I started wearing a bra, age 12, it took me just a couple of days to learn to reach behind my back and do the clasps by feel. It’s not hard to do at all. The only reason I can see for doing the backwards thing you describe is arm or shoulder mobility issues that prevent someone from reaching behind their back.
As for front-clasp bras, I have a couple and they’re just not as comfortable as rear-clasp, or sports bras with no clasp.
The variety of shapes and sizes of bodies makes it really difficult to design bras that fit a large percentage of women well. Depending on breast shape and placement on the chest wall, two women who wear the same size bra may not be able to wear the same style. It’s easier to make adjustments across the width of the back than in front in the smaller space between the breasts.
Every few years, I try on different styles of bra in the hope of being able to find a front-hook model or an 18-hour bra or a sports bra that actually fits comfortably. No dice so far.
A dissenting anecdata point. My wife has always put her bra on backwards, then turned it around.
My late first wife wore front-hook bras or pullover one-piece sports bras only. She wasn’t dainty, but she certainly wasn’t large either. Her general approach to clothing was about as utilitarian as mine; feminine frilly was just not part of her program. Her comment was that 'rasslin with the fasteners in the back was just stupid when the front hooks worked as well. Probably something some man designed just to f*** with women was her other common comment.
My current wife is also predominantly a front-hook girl. She is small of size but typical of bust. She has a variety of types with a bewildering variety of mysterious straps or no straps to hide inside all sorts of frilly or decorative or skinful wimmin stuff. These more elaborate rigs are often back-hook. I’m simply bewildered and bewitched by it all. But for less demanding outerwear, she’s front-hook all the way.
I’ve always done the backwards thing - but it’s because i can’t reach behind my back well enough to fasten the hooks. It’s not really a mobility issue though- I might be able to do it if my arms were an inch or two !onger.
OK, more anecdata here. Probably one reason I’ve never felt the need to do the backwards thing is that I have long arms (I’ve had to return coats ordered online because the sleeves were too short) and so do my mother and sisters.
If a man designed them, they would pop open just by touching them. Trying to unhook those damn things with one hand by feel is such a pain.
A man must have designed the two front-hook bras I’ve owned, then. One had an S-shape fastener and would unlatch if I reached out with one arm sideways, and the other had a strange plastic latch, the two halves of which you slid together and then snapped flat to close. That one clicked open spontaneously if I reached both arms forward, but at least the cups wouldn’t immediately spring apart.
And now I’m remembering the nursing bra I had where the cups would occasionally unhook by themselves. Good times with foundation garments!
I did this for years, and I think my mom still does this, but I was told by a salesperson that this is bad for the bra itself as it stretches out the band. So I no longer do this.
I haven’t had a front clasp bra in years/decades. Never seem to be supportive enough and they seem to be more suitable for someone with wide set breasts.
My first lover preferred front-closure bras but rather than a hook (or two) they had a plastic widget that you’d slide together vertically then snap flat. She never had any accidental undoings I was aware of. Perhaps being 32B had something to do with it.
I read somewhere that a large percentage of women are wearing the wrong size bra, although that is disputed due to sample size: So I’m wearing the wrong bra size? It’s not me, it’s you – FIT IS A FEMINIST ISSUE
Some years ago, my petit wife went to Marks and Spencer to have a professional fitting. This was not the first time, but she’s had two children in the interim. She will not buy a bra from anywhere else, so their free service proved its worth. She has some mobility issues, so she either hooks at the front and turns it around, or gets me to do it.
Anecdote…
As a young man in the “swinging” 60s, I was pretty adept at unhooking with one hand.
The only thing I know about brassieres is that, apparently, the pursuit of One That Fits Just So is as interminable, frustrating, and expensive as the equivalent search for the perfect handbag, hair cut and style, or pair of shoes.
Practice, dear boy. Practice. 
Admittedly the fold-90-degrees-then-slide-vertically sort work better when you can relieve the tension first; which is tough to do one-handed. An emergency quick release button would be convenient.
Doesn’t this topic fit into the “poor product design” thread?
You’d think that with design experts seeing a product more ubiquitous than bread, someone would have figured out a way to use one on a twice-daily* basis that didn’t involve having the skills of a master contortionist.
*putting on and taking off